


free fall

by richie (leeyoobin)



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: Angst and Fluff, Apocalypse, Dystopia, F/F, honestly this was supposed to be cute and soft and y'all get this instead, vague mentions of zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 16:42:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16453589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leeyoobin/pseuds/richie
Summary: “we should go in.”“really?” you ask, and you can’t hide the way it lifts like a kite at the end, pulled up by excitement.yoobin shrugs, “why not?”





	free fall

**Author's Note:**

> written for the 2yoo fic fest. my prompt was "at an amusement park" and like....i wrote a version that was just pure fluff, but i hated it so you get this instead. (((: OOPS.

“we should go in.”

it’s yoobin who speaks, and that sort of startles you.  she was quiet and introspective before _everything_ , but now to hear her talk when you aren’t somewhere she deems perfectly safe is...bizarre.  

but there’s her voice, soft but also so loud as it stumbles and spreads across the empty landscape.

“really?” you ask, and you can’t hide the way it lifts like a kite at the end, pulled up by excitement.

yoobin shrugs, “why not?”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

it’s an amusement park, or used to be one, at least.  over the past several months the paint has faded away, leaving rides and shops splattered with patches of discoloration, ones that peel back like the rotting flesh of the creatures you do everything in your power to avoid.

the ground is covered with leaves and pools of rainwater hug storm drains like best friends.  your feet feel loud when each leaf snaps like a bone and each trace of water you step in roars like a tsunami.  yoobin is in front with her machete in hand (something that you would find like….ridiculously attractive in a normal situation) and you try not to cling too close even though you want to.

but everything is still and silent and blissfully abandoned, and eventually you both relax, as much as you can.

the silent roller coasters stand like guardians or skeletons.  you can’t decide.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

you stop by a small building, a faded menu attached to the side that declares it used to produce hot dogs and ice cream and funnel cakes.  yoobin tilts her head back for a moment, and you study the way the early morning sun drips across her face and pools on her cheeks. the two of you had managed to bathe the day before, and she looks clean and soft and ethereal.

“what i wouldn’t do for a funnel cake and a hot dog right now.” she murmurs.

she’s the strong one.  you’ve survived this long with her support and your desperate need to not leave her alone.  but when she opens her eyes and looks at you there’s a flicker of weakness, a sadness in her smile.

you take her hand.

“let’s keep moving.”

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

the tarp is sticky with two-day-old rainwater, but you reach for it and pull it aside anyway.  yoobin is off to your left scrounging another snack stand for water bottles or gatorades or anything else she can find.  you’re comforted by the sound of her moving around.

the tarp doesn’t want to budge, but eventually it shrugs out of place and you let it fall to the ground.  what’s revealed has been protected from the sun and the worst of the elements, so the colors are bright enough to sting your eyes.  

they pull you in, hypnotic and dizzying.  it’s one of those games where players would shoot water at a target and the winner would be whoever got to the top first.

you used to be good at them.

the upholstery on the seats has rotted, but you still sit down, wrapping your hands around the water gun and aiming.  nothing comes out, but in your head you can hear it, hear the jovial music.

you whisper a quiet _ding_ to mime yourself winning, then make use of your long legs and hop over the counter.  some of the prizes are still good, and you pick a small stuffed animal.

yoobin comes back at that moment, and she’s got an armful of water bottles she’s shoving in her backpack.  you know they’re heavy and they’ll weigh her down, but your own is full of canned soup and a sleeping bag and the first aid kit, so you can’t offer to help her.

“i always sucked at this game.  this was the only one i was bad at, too.  i guess i was just too competitive and then i would get stressed and lose.” yoobin admits.  she zips her bag and pulls it on her shoulders and winces at how heavy it is.

you smile at her, genuine and bright for once, because this is something you can make better.  “good thing i just won for you. i’m _great_ at this game.” present tense.  like maybe there aren’t undead everywhere and you’ll ever have a chance to play it again, somehow.

you hand her the small stuffed panda.  you expect her to put it back, because she’s the practical one, but there’s a long pause when she just holds it close to her chest.  her expression is briefly unreadable, but then she adjusts so she can put it in her backpack, too.

“and to think you’re the clumsy one.”

but she’s smiling, and it’s less sad, at least for now.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

a rustle of leaves stops you both.  you hate how your happiness and your security shatters in an instant, a dropped mirror that keeps breaking over and over and stacking up the years of your bad luck.

yoobin freezes to listen, the only movement her hand pushing you behind her.  you grip at the handle of your baseball bat and taste your heart in your throat, slamming into the roof of your mouth.

eventually the overgrown bushes part, and out traipses a cat.

it looks at you with wide eyes and then runs into the trees, disappearing as though it never existed in the first place, a ghost of a previous life.

you try to relax.  you both laugh.

but there’s something heavier about it now, an unfortunate reminder of exactly where you are and why.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

the amusement park is more like a cemetary, and maybe that’s why you’re both filled up with nostalgia.  you sit in an empty coaster train, forever frozen at the base of the lift hill. there’s an aching sort of desire for it to suddenly move, because you think the free fall might be a nice distraction.

but you’re sure the mechanisms are all rusted and clogged and will never work again.  a long sigh escapes, and you stare at the sky and how the sun still moves the same way as though unaware that everything has changed.

“one day, if all of this gets fixed, i’ll take you on an actual amusement park date.” yoobin says, from next to you.  you notice the _if_ and you both know it’ll never happen.  but it’s nice to think about.

you smile and look over at her.  “you don’t want to see what i’m like after a bag of cotton candy.”

“maybe i do,” yoobin replies, and she smiles back.

you study the curve of her cheeks and how somehow, miraculously, they’re still soft and fluffy.  she looks younger and older all at once, a paradox. you love her so deeply it makes you feel sick, because despite how clean you both are now, there’s a tiny smudge of blood by her left ear that she missed and that messy patch of crimson reminds you that you might lose her, at any moment.

thinking about that is too heavy.  it compresses you as though the shoulder bar of the ride had engaged and locked in too tightly against your chest.  you look away, down at your feet. “i bet you’re secretly a screamer.”

“i think you would have figured that out by now,” yoobin replies, and your face flushes.  she laughs, soft but very real, and you laugh too.

“that’s not what i meant!  i meant on roller coasters.” you’re still blushing, like summer strawberries, like a sunset.  yoobin reaches out and rubs her thumb over your cheek affectionately, and she can probably feel how much it’s burning.

you relax into the touch, relax into the way she tilts your head and pulls you in to kiss you, murmuring “you’re so beautiful when you blush like that” right before your lips connect.  she smiles against your mouth and for a moment everything falls away.

it’s like the free fall on the first drop of a roller coaster, your stomach somersaulting and no air in your lungs.  it’s the rush of euphoria you cling to because you don’t know how long it will last.

and maybe you’ll be happy never riding an amusement park ride again, as long as yoobin is by your side.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

you have to leave, eventually.

the roller coaster skeletons watch you leave like gargoyles or patron saints.

for once you don’t feel _just_ terror.  there’s a lingering, distantly familiar happiness that drifts through the holes in the tension and wraps around you.

you cling to it as hard as you can, hoping you never have to let go.


End file.
